Economy and Society

David Reisman

Chapter 4 in Conservative Capitalism, 1999, pp 79-109 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Insulation from other people provides no immunity from the inertia of the established. The Tabula Rasa, deserted without family, peers or the internalised categories of remembered socialisation that kept Crusoe an Englishman, can still be a conservative. Extrapolation from experience makes him conceptualise the future as if it were the past. His mind employs rules of thumb which channel new cognitions through existing biases. Aspiration-levels which have not disappointed are pressed into service in circumstances which have changed. The hypothetical isolate, never other than alone, can, it would appear, become trapped in a rut that is no less a rut for the fact that he himself laid it out. The hut under attack from a boar, the river about to flood, Wild Peter still clings to his tea at three. His tendency to use his biography as a crutch is indicative of that normative conservatism that was discussed in the preceding chapter.

Keywords: Social Economic; Neoclassical Economics; Social Custom; Inte Rvenes; Ordinary Business (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-333-98278-5_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9780333982785_4

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